Shropshire Grief Tending Services CIC has been set up by myself, Merryn Tenalach, to support our grieving population. I found myself in the midst of grief with noone who really understood, or perhaps, nobody who truly wanted to hear me. It was then that I found grief ceremonies being held by my, now mentor, in Wales. After attending a ceremony and being a part of holding a grief cafe, I knew this was my work. I knew that this work needed to be available everywhere.
I, Merryn, have a background in therapies, have spent the last five years working as a doula and prior to all of this, worked in end of life care. It feels like all the work I've ever done has amalgamated for the work I am now here to offer.
I regularly appear in mainstream media supporting people with their grief and sharing the wisdom that I hold around grief tending. When working with people, the service I offer is very different to anything else, it truly allows for people to process all of their feelings in exactly the ways that they need to without judgement, held with love and with the trust that everything that they need to work through is going to be validated and witnessed which, for me, is an integral part of grief tending on a community level.
Shropshire Grief Tending Services CIC offers one to one support to people who are grieving in their own homes or on grief tending walks. We also offer, presently, monthly grief cafes, we are hoping that, with this funding, we will be able to offer them weekly across Shrewsbury. We hold grief ceremonies to support the collective tending of grief and we strive to bring conversations about grief and death right into the centre of communities so that nobody feels they have to keep their grief hidden away.
